CARTELS & RESTRICTIVE AGREEMENTS -

EC FINES VALVE AND FIVE PUBLISHERS OF PC VIDEO GAMES FOR GEO-BLOCKING -

AT.40413, Focus Home – Video Games; AT.40414, Koch Media – Video Games; AT.40420, Zenimax – Video Games; AT.40422, Bandai Namco – Video Games; AT.40424, Capco – Video Games, 20 January 2021 -

On 20 January 2021, the EC fined Valve Corporation and five publishers, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, a total of EUR 7.9 million for breaching antitrust rules by partitioning the EEA market.

Background -

Valve, together with the five publishers, restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games based on the geographic location of the users, within the EEA (otherwise known as geo-blocking)....